Sciencemag.org reports, 3rd April 2019: No flag can claim the high seas, but many nations exploit them. As a result, life in the two-thirds of the oceans beyond any country’s territorial waters faces many threats that are largely unregulated, including over-fishing and the emerging deep-sea mining industry. Now, nations are negotiating the first-ever high-seas conservation treaty, which the […]

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David Scullion, Brexit Central 18th November 2018, interviews Aaron Brown, Fishing For Leave, and reports on the UK Fisheries Bill currently before the UK Parliament. The Fisheries Bill is due for its Second Reading in the House of Commons on Wednesday 21st November 2018, the first time the Government has attempted to take back sovereignty […]

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Marinet is currently embarking on a series of seminars at UK universities in which it presents the scientific evidence and arguments for a paradigm change in the governance of human activity in the ocean, as explained by Marinet Member, Deborah Wright, in her publication Conserving The Great Blue. This two hour long seminar has been […]

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The Commonwealth Secretariat News Release, 20th April 2018, reports: Commonwealth leaders today agreed on a bold, co-ordinated push to protect the ocean from the effects of climate change, pollution and over-fishing. Their landmark decision to adopt a Commonwealth Blue Charter will affect one third of the world’s national coastal waters, helping to sustain livelihoods and […]

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Note: This article was commissioned by The Marine Quarterly which has agreed to the publishing of an abridged version in its Summer edition. The decline in both the health and diversity of life of British seas is a subject much reported upon. Yet in addressing the meaning of Brexit in this context it is first […]

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Marinet has responded, February 2017, to the formal questionnaire issued by the Welsh Assembly aimed at enquiring about the effectiveness of management of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Wales. Marinet’s full response can be seen here. The objectives of the Welsh Assembly inquiry are: To assess the management of Welsh marine protected areas with a […]

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The consultancy ABPmer has produced an assessment of which of the existing EU laws will continue to apply to the UK following Brexit, and which will not. If the UK remains wholly within the EU’s Single Market, then most of the existing EU laws will continue to apply. However the consultancy has also considered the […]

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A small group of MEPs, see below, has drawn up a parliamentary petition aimed at the EU Commission which seeks to ban the use of microbead plastics in commercial products. Microbead plastics, which are too small to be seen by the naked eye, are now regularly used in commercial products such as toothpastes, shampoos and […]

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Reuters reports, 28th April 2015: “European lawmakers have backed reforms meant to end decades of over-fishing, but critics said unscrupulous fishermen would be able to carry on throwing away perfectly good fish because of a glaring loophole. “The European Union in 2013 agreed to reform the bloc’s common fisheries policy in an attempt to rebuild […]

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Greenpeace press report, 24th April 2015, states: “A full judicial review into the government’s decision to continue to give nearly the entire UK fishing quota to domestic industrial and foreign corporations, at the expense of local, low impact fishermen, has been given the green light by the High Court today. “Mrs Justice Andrews granted permission […]

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The Institute of Fisheries Management issued the following statement on proposals and actions relating to the management of Sea Bass: “The European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax, is a vulnerable species in a changing and dynamic climate. A combination of slow growth, late maturity, spawning aggregation, and strong site fidelity increases the vulnerability of bass to […]

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The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition has announced, October 2014, a new campaign and published a leaflet to end deep sea fishing in UK and EU seas. The leaflet states: “Most of the targeted fishing for deep-sea species in UK waters is carried out by French and Spanish fleets. These fleets are primarily fishing in UK […]

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Sea Fish Magazine reports, 11th March 2015: “It has been reported that the owner of a Cornelis Vrolijk super-trawler, caught fishing illegally in south-west England, has been allowed to sell its haul for £437,000 while being fined a fraction of the profits, The Times reports. “The Frank Bonefaas was found to be carrying 632,000 kilos […]

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Oceana reports, 12th March 2015: “The Spanish Government has announced the launch of ‘Operation Sparrow’, an investigation into several companies for alleged links with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. “If the investigation finds links to IUU fishing, including financial connections, it could lead to the imposition of significant fines on Spanish companies and […]

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Marine Licensing is the process for getting planning permission to dig, dump or build something at sea. However, communities currently have no rights to challenge the regulator’s decisions. If you want more protection for our seas, please reply to an important Department of Environment (DEFRA) consultation, before the deadline of 25th February 2015. Unusually, DEFRA […]

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The Environmental News Service reports, 27th January 2015: “Government representatives from around the world agreed 24th January 2015 to develop the first legally-binding agreement to conserve marine life in the high seas and international seabed, an area covering roughly half the planet. After four days of intense deliberations at UN Headquarters in New York, delegates […]

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Amanda Furlonger of Marine Environment Strategy and Evidence, email hidden; JavaScript is required, advises us that DEFRA has just published a consultation on proposals to change how some complex marine licence cases are decided, these applying to English waters and the offshore areas of Wales and Northern Ireland, where the Secretary of State, Liz Truss, […]

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The Pew Foundation reports, 21st October 2014: “On the 10th and 11th November EU fisheries ministers are scheduled to decide on fishing limits for deep sea stocks in 2015 and 2016. This will be done for the first time under the reformed Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The deep sea is the area of the ocean […]

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At the OSPARConvention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic made up of representatives of the Governments of the 15 signatory nations. meeting in London on 12th September 2014, attended by the EU Commission, Marinet presented the case for both a strong definition and a genuine implementation of Descriptor 3 which […]

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The Global Ocean Commission is seeking protection under law via the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOSThe United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, also called the Law […]